Bolstering the trend toward power-by-the-hour (PBH) maintenance contracts from Chinese carriers, Cathay Pacific Airways subsidiary Dragonair has opted for a Fleet Hour Agreement (FHA) deal with International Aero Engines AG (IAE). The agreement signed with IAE will see the manufacturer managing 48 V2500 power plants on 15 Dragonair Airbus A320s and 7 A321s, with four spare engines also covered under the contract.
Boeing is set to transfer customer support for all current production aircraft—except for the 787—to its recently created Southern California Engineering Design Center, as part of the company’s long-term strategy to diversify commercial aircraft engineering beyond the borders of its home state of Washington.
Airlines are increasingly asking for avionics to be overhauled rather than repaired when systems are removed for servicing. Dylan McGraw, director of Thales Avionics Trading, says the trend means that airlines will be paying more for the broader scope of work, which includes more preventative maintenance along with fixing the primary cause of the original failure, but the payoff is longer time on wing. Two Years Ago
Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris reported a 2% increase in March traffic year-over-year on 6.3% more capacity, down markedly from the carrier’s February traffic, which was up 12.4% on 12.8% more capacity, compared with 2013. For the first quarter of this year, traffic rose 10.7% on 10.8% more capacity, compared with 2013, the carrier says. Volaris ascribes the relatively slow growth of its March traffic to Holy Week, one of Mexico’s busiest travel seasons, which this year falls in April but was in March last year.
Silver Airways has asked the U.S. Transportation Dept. for permission to end subsidized essential air service (EAS) flights from Atlanta to several cities in the Southeast in order to concentrate on what the carrier calls its “core markets.”
The provincial government of Qinghai, striving to create a hub for far-western China at Xining, will subsidize enhanced services operated by Xiamen Airlines. Xiamen has agreed to provide evening services at Xining Caogjiabao Airport and set up a night base. The carrier will increase its domestic services and “create regional international products,” which likely means connections between Xining and services to foreign destinations from the carrier’s main base at Xiamen, on the country’s southeast coast.
People Express Airlines is the fourth airline to apply for slots at Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA), with plans for daily service to Myrtle Beach, S.C. and West Palm Beach, Fla. However, the Department of Transportation (DOT) says the carrier has not filed any documents supporting its application, other than a letter from Michael Morisi, the start-up airline’s former president, who now serves as an adviser to the carrier.
New Chinese carrier Qingdao Airlines will begin flying this month after taking delivery of its first aircraft, an Airbus A320. The A320, powered by CFM56 engines, is fitted with eight business and 144 economy seats, says Airbus, announcing the delivery of the aircraft, which Qingdao Airlines is leasing from China Aircraft Leasing Co. of Hong Kong. The carrier ordered A320ceo and 18A320neo aircraft last year, but deliveries will not begin until 2016. It planned at the time to begin services this year with leased aircraft.
Cebu Pacific Air plans to launch flights to a several key European destinations following formal confirmation by the European Commission (EC) that it had removed the Philippines’ budget carrier from the European Union (EU) “blacklist” of airlines banned from operating to EU member countries.
Pilots’ and flight attendants’ unions are renewing their calls to block Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) unconventional plans to serve the U.S. market under an Irish AOC and with contracted crews sourced from Southeast Asia.
16-20 June 2014 Atlanta, GA Orlanda Carvalho Executive Vice President Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Allan McArtor Chairman and CEO Airbus Americas, Inc. Peter Cerda Senior Vice President, The Americas International Air Transport Association Larry Lawson President and CEO Spirit AeroSystems www.aiaa-aviation.org/programAVD
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected] . (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Apr. 14-16— ACI-NA 2014 Environmental Affairs Conference, Baltimore Maryland, http://aci-na.org/event/3210#
June 10-11—MRO Eastern Europe, Baltics and Russia, Sheraton Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland July 16-20—Farnborough Commercial Manufacturing Briefings and Farnborough Air Show, U.K. Oct. 7-9—MRO Europe, Madrid Spain Nov. 4-6—MRO Asia, Singapore
Europe is progressing toward the demonstration of key more-electric aircraft technologies on an Airbus A320 test bed, now scheduled to fly by the end of 2015 under the Clean Sky public-private research program. The A320 electrical Flight Test Demonstrator (eFTD) will test a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power supply, an electrically driven environmental control system (ECS), two different types of electrical wing ice protection systems (WIPS) and new laser-based ice sensors.
Maintenance, repair and overhaul industry officials say FAA employees and managers are in some cases imposing ad hoc rules on MRO companies by improperly using the FAA’s internal on-line flight standards information management system (FSIMS), an electronic documentation system the agency adopted to replace the legacy “inspector’s handbook.”
16-20 June 2014 Atlanta, GA Orlanda Carvalho Executive Vice President Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Allan McArtor Chairman and CEO Airbus Americas, Inc. Peter Cerda Senior Vice President, The Americas International Air Transport Association Larry Lawson President and CEO Spirit AeroSystems www.aiaa-aviation.org/programAVD
Wary that the U.S. Contract Tower Program may remain vulnerable to budget cuts, industry leaders are urging Congress to continue to dedicate funding to the contract air traffic control towers. Eleven associations wrote House and Senate Appropriations leaders asking for a measure to dedicate at least $149 million to the program in fiscal 2015.
Lufthansa and its pilots union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) have agreed to resume talks over a future early retirement plan and a new pay deal following a pilots strike that essentially grounded the airline for three days last week. Neither the union nor Lufthansa revealed further details about when they will meet or what other progress may have been made.
